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Arequipa is the second largest city in Peru and was mentioned as one of the highlights in my travel guide. Well not Arequipa itself but the Colca Canyon which is apparently the second deepest canyon in the world (twice as deep as the Grand Canyon). Apart from being very deep it also contains a horde of Condors. The way to visit the canyon and to see the Condors is to do a 1, 2 or 3 day tour or trek. Sounds reasonable … well I didn’t do any of that. Can’t really explain why I didn’t want to go and see the canyon.
My favourite guess why I didn’t go is that I got a bit sick of sightseeing after my previous “run” through the rest of Peru. Another explanation is that my company kept me up all night partying so that I never had the chance to go. We let history be the judge.
My company was Pelin (again) which was through a coincidence also in town. The original plan was to meet up in Sydney again and swap travel stories but she changed her flights a while ago and stayed longer in Peru. So it just happened that we
were in the same place again. Good enough reason to go out and remise about the old times over some glasses of Pisco sour. We were completed by Servane (the cutest French accent west of Paris) and most of the times Cesar the local gigolo. The rest is a history of headaches and good times.
Apart from drinking some of alcoholic beverages and staying up late I also did some sightseeing in town. One outstanding sight is the
Santa Catalina Monastery. This 20.000 square meter monster of a Monastery was founded in 1580 by a very rich Spanish widow. The convent was in the beginning solely for rich Spanish daughters as the custom was that the second son or daughter became a monk or nun. Being a nun back then in this monastery didn’t mean a life in poverty. They all had their own quarters, one to four slaves, invited musicians and had parties! Sounds like a great time apart from the no sex rule.
It all ended in 1871 when the pope sent a new head nun which didn’t like to party. From then on everyone could join the convent, the slaves were freed, the parties stopped and they went
Placa de Aramas with the cathedral in the background.
The cathedral is the only one in Peru which spans the whole width of the Placa de Aramas and only one of 160 which are allowed to display the flag of the Vatican. back to whatever real nuns do.
The party was over so to speak.
The other girl which didn’t do too much partying in her life is Juanita the “Ice Princess”. She is or better was a 14 year old girl which was sacrificed in 1490AD by the Incas to please the gods (That at least what the archaeologists’ figured). Nothing special so far many young girls have been sacrificed in the last couple of thousand years. The thing that makes her and her “sisters” (quite a few mummies have been found) outstanding is that she was deep frozen all the time. She apparently was meant to please the mountain gods and was therefore placed on top of a mountain. It’s not really tropical around here and on top of a mountain it’s like being in a freezer, hence she and her clothing were perfectly preserved over the last hundred years. How lucky she is that she is now on display in a transparent freezer in one of the museums in Arequipa to be stared at by a horde of tourists. Bet she didn’t expect that when she got banged on the head with a big club by an Inca
Street map of the monastery Sata Catalina
It is over two blocks long and one wide. And some of the streets within the monastery really have street names. priest back then
The other sights not to miss in Arequipa is the Cathedral which is one of the few which is a wide as the Plaza de Armas it stands on and only one of 160 in the world which is allowed to display the Vatican flag. How exciting is that?
Next stop Cusco
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Cansin
non-member comment
Thanks
Hey Ralph, I am friend of Pelin. She put me into your web site about Peru. It's much better way than to answer questions. It's amusing and very informative. Thanks for your efforts. Cansin